Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Raised Faculty Building University of Cambridge Sidgwick Avenue Cambridge CB3 9DA United Kingdom
I have been researching various aspects of Soviet film history since I was working on my Specialist degree thesis (The use of painting in the work of the production designer, SPUHSS, 2011). My Master's thesis (Representations of the West in the 1920-1930s Soviet cinema, EUSP, 2020) helped me develop an interest in the Soviet interwar visual culture and the cinema of the 1920s. I am particularly interested in the impact international cinematic and visual culture exchange between the Soviet Union, the West and the East had on film and imagery of the era and how it affected intercultural intellectual transfer between countries.
My current PhD research is focusing on the pedagogical discourse of the Soviet 1920-1930s films about uprisings in the West, in the East and in the Soviet republics. The project explores not only films as such, but a broader discursive range of educational practices about the revolution, pursued by Soviet ideologists at various levels over the course of the decades at the workers’ club. The research aims to explore the ways in which the medium of cinema was manipulated in its transgression from visual to verbal and spatial forms, as a means of an interactive ideological pedagogy to disseminate historical narratives.
Soviet interwar cinema, Soviet internationalism, interwar cinematic & intellectual transfer, film pedagogy, useful cinema.
Research Topic:
Lessons in the World Revolution: Genealogy and Pedagogy of Uprisings in the West and in the East in the Soviet 1920-1930s film
Scholarships/Prizes:
2021- 2025 Hill Foundation Scholarship
2019 European University at St Petersburg Scholarship (Academic Internship at Russia Institute, King’s College London)
Constructing the West: Western Cities in the Soviet Cinema of 1920s – 1930s https://eefb.org/retrospectives/western-cities-in-the-soviet-cinema-of-the-1920s-and-1930s/?pdf=8175
From Screen to Book and Back: to the Question of Cinematic Context in Children Illustrated Books of the 1920s – 1930s http://mkmf.net/images/doc/2019_studia%20slavica.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1VMnFRn5bfG7djYeZjiT3EgHkHgW6n8Uc4gsGjLjQHvI_ycTG8FAjjtIQ
Traveling from the West to ‘the Miraculous Country’: Revisiting the Context of the Origins of One Literary Narrative in the Soviet Children Illustrated Book of the 1920s – 1930s https://schoolsummer.jimdo.com/о-журнале/номера-журнала/2018-т-14-2-3/
Academic events and lectures
‘Teaching Revolution Through Film: Framing Historical Narratives in the Soviet Cinemas and Workers’ Clubs, 1920s - c. 1930', Russian Cinema Research Group seminar, UCL SSEES, London, 11 March 2024
Conference Papers:
‘Lessons in Revolution on the Western Borderline: Uprisings in Ukraine and Belarus in the 1920s – 1930s Soviet Film’, British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies Annual Conference 2023, University of Glasgow, 31 March–2 April 2023.
‘International Education of the Masses: Screening the Paris Commune in the 1920s-1930s Soviet Workers’ Club”, 48th Study Group on the Russian Revolution, BASEES Annual Conference, University of Southampton (online), 4-6 January 2023
‘Lessons in World revolution: Instructions for the 1920s-1930s Soviet Workers’ (Film) Club’, ASEEES Annual Convention, Chicago, 10-13 November 2022
‘“How to Celebrate 18 March, the Day of MOPR”: Screening the Revolution at the Workers’ Club’, From Empire to the Union: Wars, Revolutions, Nations, Culture 1905-1922, European University at St Petersburg (online), 23-24 September 2022
‘Crowds in ports: Revolutionary Western City in the 1930s Soviet Film’, British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies Annual Conference 2022, Robinson College, University of Cambridge, 8-10 April 2022
‘On Making Friends and Foes: Representations of the West in the Soviet Cinema’, Trust and Truth: Cambridge AHRC DTP Annual Conference, Peterhouse College, University of Cambridge, 18-20 September 2019
‘Traveling from the West to “the Miraculous Country”: Revisiting the Foreign Context of the Soviet Children Illustrated Book of the 1920s’, Artwork and its Context: International conference on Art History, European University at St Petersburg, 21-22 April 2018
‘Family Business: on narratives of Film Adaptations of Anti-Fascist Novels Professor Mamlok (1938) and Semia Oppengeim (1939)’, International Conference of Young Philologists, University of Tartu, 27-29 April 2018
‘From Screen to Book and Back: to the Question of Cinematic Context in Children Illustrated Books of the 1920s – 1930s’, International Conference of Young Philologists, University of Tallin, 15-17 February 2018
Other activities and roles:
Decolonising Soviet Studies Research Network, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, co-organiser
